An Office Job

           This week I spent a day in the office scanning paper, and another day labeling and sorting the digital files from those scans.

Like the transcription work, I do not feel like there is any enthralling revelation that I have from this. I am spending hours and hours processing hundreds or thousands of pages (digitally and physically) so that later someone else won’t have to.

 Here is a glimpse of what I was doing in the office:

1. The day started with a cup of coffee (see my lovely yellow mug) which I brought from home (because coffee makes every morning better).

2.Then I set up my printer/scanner. The office already had two other fax/printer/scanners but one of them could not connect to a computer and the other scanned each page independently. I needed my machine to scan 30 and 50 page documents as a single document, and so I brought one from home.

3. Then I dredged the files from the cabinet. As I opened each folder I compared them to our digital database so that I wouldn’t make duplicates. Then I scanned the transcription and permission/release forms separately (for ease of access later.) Then I stapled/paper clipped the interviews to their release forms and re-filed the physical copies alphabetically.

4. I have several new office friends now. One is the printer function which scans stacks of paper at a time. This process would be infinitely longer if I had to copy each page individually. The others come as a conglomerate: paperclips, staple remover, stapler, and sticky notes… These are the essentials of any office.

        Here you can see how much I’ve done. I feel successful when I stack it all together like that. 

 The next step is naming and organizing the digital files so that I can (finally) complete an excel. Imagine so much work for one spreadsheet?

This is why no one likes paperwork… Except that I did enjoy the repetition of the task. I don’t want to make a career of this job, but I am enjoying a few days in the office.